Fleurage Perfume Atelier in Press Articles

Janice Breen Burns

Voxfrock was intrigued by Fleurage. A perfumer! we thought. How lovely. But, weren’t perfumers Genoan? Or Parisien? Or extinct? Or, at best, strapped to the labs of mega scent factories operated by global designer brands? Voxfrock’s historic knowledge of the profession was pathetically limited. We knew of Ernest Beaux who concocted the legendary No. 5. for Coco Chanel. And, there was the mythical, murderous “gifted and abominable” Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, lead character of author, Patrick Suskind’s small, disturbing literary masterpiece, “Perfume”. We knew about him. But, that was about it. So, on a cold, quiet Friday morning, with legendary Vogue photographer Monty Coles, we arrange to meet Miss Emma Leah in her little Fleurage empire on South Melbourne’s wide, tram-tracked Park Street.